Norwegian's employees to run the NYC Marathon for UNICEF

The nine Norwegian employees who will run this year's NYC Marathon for UNICEF

On November 4, nine Norwegian employees from across Europe will participate in the NYC Marathon, running on behalf of UNICEF and raising money to support the organization’s effort worldwide. Each runner is committed to fundraise $4,000 to UNICEF USA, which will help save hundreds of children living in crisis areas around the world. Each runner will also be presented in Norwegian’s social media channels leading up to the marathon.

"We are extremely proud of our colleagues who will represent Norwegian at the NYC Marathon and help make the world a better place for children in need by fundraising for UNICEF. Over the years, we have had hundreds of volunteers help with various UNICEF initiatives and we look forward to many more ahead to further support UNICEF's causes," said CEO Bjørn Kjos.

This marks the first time Norwegian partners with UNICEF for the NYC Marathon, but follows a number of new initiatives that the airline has introduced to further support its partnership with UNICEF. Last year, Norwegian celebrated its 10-year anniversary as a UNICEF corporate partner, during which Norwegian contributed approximately $2.5 million to UNICEF’s interventions.

Norwegian and UNICEF have also carried out four humanitarian aid missions since 2014 to the Central African Republic, to Syrian refugees in Jordan, to Mali and most recently for Yemen. Together, the partners have brought emergency aid that has saved more than 100,000 children’s lives. CEO Bjørn Kjos has personally participated in all four missions.

This past October, Norwegian and UNICEF completed their fourth humanitarian aid flight, which was destined for Yemen. They filled a brand-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft with 28 tons of essential emergency aid and flew the supplies into Djibouti, the safest point to access the Yemeni refugee camp. The aircraft, which had been delivered to Norwegian a few days prior, was painted with the UNICEF logo.

Norwegian has also had a Boeing 737-800 aircraft with UNICEF livery since the partnership was forged in 2007. In March last year, Norwegian raised $240,000 for the humanitarian mission to Mali. Using the UNICEF livery 737 aircraft, the two partners brought relevant aid and supplies for the 360,000 children in Mali who are suffering from the effects of war and conflict, and do not have access to schools. The two earlier missions brought relief to the Central African Republic and to the largest Syrian refugee camp in Jordan; in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Since June 2015 Norwegian’s customers have also been able to donate money to UNICEF as a part of the booking process. In the first full calendar year of 2016, passengers donated more than $600,000 to support UNICEF using this option.

Norwegian is proud to continue its strong relationship with UNICEF and continuously expand the partnership. For more information on Norwegian’s commitment to UNICEF, please see here.